2 differences between Hockey India League and IPL

Long ago, back when Hockey India and Hockey India Federation were tussling, I put out a suggestion that the two bodies ought to settle their differences through an old fashioned hockey match. What better way to judge which body is more fit to govern Hockey in India than by judging their prowess? Back then, it seemed like the only logical course of action to find a solution to all the infighting, the only way to help Indian Hockey reclaim its former glory in India. Well, something did happen, Hockey India League. While the means of clean-up is different, a new league instead of getting old geezers from two rival federations battle it out, we’ll all take it for what it is, the upliftment of the game in India.

I heard in a TED talk that if you are doing some ‘work’, you tend to do it half heartedly. Since childhood we are trained to do less, because doing more would have people ask us to do more. So we tend to hold back on purpose and do less just so we can do more later if needed. We don’t always go all out. There have been a couple of forays into Hockey leagues in India with fledgling success. Well the third time has proven to be the charm this time around. After the slumping of PHL and WSH, we now have a new league which in all probability will be a super hit. It has the big names at least and the model resonates closer to the IPL which is a good indication considering the latter’s popularity.

But this is Hockey. Not cricket. The Hockey India League is going to be a lot more different than the IPL, for starters it will have people running around and sweating instead of ‘fielding’. To narrow down, here are 2 expected differences between the Hockey India League and IPL-

Fewer moral outrages on field

IPL matches in India brought in a new commodity, commodification of women in the form of skimpily dressed cheerleaders. An IPL match was more than a sporting contest, it was an opportunity for the self righteous to rebel against this moral outrage. These policemen of morals gave equal drool – drool at the cheerleaders and at the opportunity to put them in their place.

Well with the Hockey India League, that opportunity to drool and make outrage is thrown out of the window. In the IPL, the cheerleaders cheered at boundaries, cheering at an out of bounds play in Hockey doesn’t make much sense. And goals are so few and far between that to do justice to bringing cheerleaders all the way out there, they would have to do an entire song and dance number of a few minutes. Otherwise, one or two steps after every goal would just make them redundant.

That’s the rationale I thought of why the anti cheerleader moral police would be kept away from the Hockey India League. Apparently there won’t be cheerleaders for Ranchi Rhinos because of the moral issue. Ranchi Rhinos CEO Banti Singh said “We plan to host traditional programmes of this region along Disco Jockey-cum-live music while the matches are on here.”

Bottomline is that Hockey as a sport is a lot less conducive to frequent cuts to shots of cheerleaders. The next factor I’m about to factor in also has a little to do with the moral issue.

Soap opera?

The IPL was as much about entertainment as it was about the sport. The legendary after-parties made for endless gossip and the famous owners of the teams with Bollywood connections only added to the entertainment factor. I think Hockey India League will have a lot less after parties than IPL had. Because the sport itself is not too conducive to after game parties.

In the NBA, the party issue generally comes up when players party prior to the game and arrive tired for the game. One of the reasons Miami plays well at home must be because the visiting team is half tired from the partying at South Beach. ‘Sattar minute!’, Shahrukh Khan’s famous speech laying emphasis on the 70 minutes the players had to make a mark while playing hockey made me think of another number, 48 minutes. A basketball game in the NBA lasts for 48 minutes, 40 minutes in FIBA rules. And those athletes are too burned out after games to be partying.

Can you imagine how tired the Hockey players will be after the matches? One of my perpetual and long standing gripes with Cricket has been that it requires so much of standing still as opposed to doing something. The damn fielder just stands there like a cow grazing on grass. At least the cow chomps the cud, the player just stands. And what do they do with all that pent up energy later? They partayy!

Ok, there will be pre game parties and post game ones too, but the hullabaloo will be considerably less. There will be a lot less attention given to the colourful off field proclivities as a cumulative, players will always party but it will be more individual than a team party. How much stamina will you have to work your magic stick after waving the hockey stick all night long? This is a sport where the players are sprinting while carrying a stick. Cricket as a sport is designed to make you store up pent up energy which you need to dispel in a vigorous night of partying.